The more we can understand our feelings and thoughts the more we are in control of our day to day. At times, when we think about how we are progressing with our goals, wishes and expectations we can be confronted with anxiety. Anxiety is built into us to alert us for danger. Most often it can be used as a guide that something is happening in our life that is important to us. Depending on how we respond to this anxiety, can differentiate the outcome of our feelings, thoughts and behaviors. Sometimes we can respond overly critical on ourselves which often results in feeling low, unmotivated, numb and withdrawn from others. We can respond to these almost automatic critical thoughts with compassionate behaviors. Self-compassion is using the courage of care we have for ourselves to overcome challenges. Compassion is the part of us that speaks up when things are unfair, mistreated or “not quite right”. Importantly, when we tune into compassion for ourselves, we create a safe and caring place to visit some of our anger, sadness, grief and happiness. Think of compassion as the drivers seat of the car, our feelings are the passengers, the engine room is our brain, the wheels are our planned behaviors to get us from a to b and the boot is some of the struggles that we carry through from our past. Sometimes we need to change up a gear, some times we need to slow things down or sometimes we need to process and digest at the current speed. Most importantly, we make sure our car and all of us are heading to the same place. The road we travel on can get confusing when each part of us is not on the same team. Overtime, this can create states of depression and constant anxiety. Just like our cars, we need regular maintenance, regular repairs, regular upgrades. We can run on empty for a while but suddenly, when it breaks it can be bad. Compassion is our upgrades, our repairs and it is important to make sure we are running smoothly.
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